Rick looked out, and, after a careful examination, said, with rather an ashamed look, that he thought he would reach about to the top of the barn-door.
"Very good," said Herr Schuler; "and now think, and tell me truly, about how many children you really suppose there were on the elephant's back."
After thinking a while, Rick said, with a deep blush, that he was not sure that there were more than twenty-five.
"Very well," said Herr Schuler: "if you go on at this rate, do you expect to grow up a reliable man, whose word can be depended upon? Take off your jacket!"
"There!" he continued, after he had given Rick a number of sharp blows, "will that make you remember to be more truthful in your statements?"
"I guess it will help," replied Rick; "but if I find myself talking so carelessly again, I will tell you, and take another whipping to help my memory."
He was as good as his word: he came to Herr Schuler several times after that, with the information that he had not told the exact truth, and took a whipping for it.
Only once, however, did Herr Schuler whip him with a right good will of his own; and that was after he had paid a visit at the castle, and heard Rick, several times, speak disrespectfully to his mother.
For instance, when his mother said she thought she should have a branch cut from one of the trees near the castle, because it shaded Rick's window too much, Rick said,—
"A branch! I guess I'll have that whole tree down, or nothing; it's only a bother, anyway; it not only darkens the window, but it spoils the view out of the window. I'll have the tree cut down to the ground!"